Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-01
THE OLDEST DEMOCRAT OF ALL.
What the Old War Horse Says About the
Proposed Amendment.

What the Old War Horse Says About the
Proposed Amendment.
AUSTIN, TEX, April %, 1887.
Nessrs. Barnet Gibbs, Page and others, Dallas,
Tex.
MY DEAR SIRs-Your invitation to
meet "those opposed to the adoption of
the prohibition amendment" at Dallas,
on May 4, is before me.
It will not be convenient to meet you
on so interesting an occasion. l however,
beg to assure you thatI shall vote against
me prohibition amendment.
l. Because from my earliest reCOllec~
ton | became Democrat as democracy
was taught by Thomas Jef1eTsOn and eX-
pounded to me from the lips of John c..
Calhoun, Geo. McDuffie, Robert Y. Hayne,
Robert J. Trumbull and other dlstin-
guished South CarOlinians. Subsequently
I was instructed in Democratic prinCi-
pies by such great minds as Sam Houston,
Thomas J. RuSk, J. PinCknev Henderson,
Chief Justice John Hemphill, Ashbel Smith
and others. Then l have listened to De
mOCracy as taught by the illustrious JEFF
Davis, Alex Stephens, Bob TOOmbs,
Howell Cobb, Mason of Virginia, Slidelf
of Louisiana, John G. Harris of
Tennessee, BENJAMIN of Louis
lana, and others. More recently
have listened to John II Reagan, Sam Bell
AIaXeV, Dave Culberson, 7. r. Bonner, w.
S. Herndon, Richard Coke, a. w. Terrell
and other men of distinction too numer-
Gus 10 name IN this letter. They have
grounded me so firmly in my Democratic
saith and principles all along through life
that / can no more change and favor
sumptuary laws at this period Of my life
than | could in years gOne-by Know
Nothingism and other isms that al
Iured many other Democrats from our
time-honored party.
I do not wish TO be understood as
saving that he who votes for the amend
ment is not a Democrat. l do, however,
say that in my Judgment the Democratic
plstform of last August only spoke Eot
local option as engrsfted IN the state
constitution and as such respeCtea by
all Democrats. The convention merely
said that an opinion in favor OF or
against local option was not TEST OF
mans Democracy, ana that
he was permitted to vote as he pleased
and still remain in fellowship with the
party.
do venture, however, to assert that,
in nv Judgment, should the amendmentbe
AQODLGu liz NuGSbtOu Will NLAiS N-SAN
sitter political shape and tend greatly to
disintegrate the Democratic party, which,
in my opinion, will work great injury to
the country.
,. Because it viii destroy an i'm
portant and growing industry in cur
state, the culture Of the grape and
the manufacture of wine. Right here I
will say that many Immigrants to 0nr
state, notably from California, in
purchasing school lands at 81 and
SO per acre shave assured me
that the lands they purchased from the
state of Texas ms few years would pro-
duce as many grapes to the acre as the
lands that they sold in California for $3.50
and $3.50 per acre. Many of those grape
lands are now bringing from $500 to $500
per acre. l have visited Wine-producing
countries and countries manufacturing
largely malt liquors, there you will ind
little or do drunkenness. In England ana
the United States, where butt limited
production of the grape is found, you find
that the strong drinks are resorted to,
producing intoxicstion. l am firmly OF
the belief that if wine and beer-making
was encouraged in our state, 1t would
han = greater tendency to destroy the
tstrong drinks than prohibiting
d upon an amendment that does